Chapter 5:

Training Ranges are all the Rage

A few hours later, I was back home, staring up at the ceiling, trying and failing oh so hard to get my brain to turn off. If it had been up to me we would have jumped into the crazy world of Interverse combat right that second. But Stephen insisted that we needed sleep and that literally everyone else would be doing that. Best to sleep and let things die down a little bit.

I didn't press it but, come on, there was no hope of things dying down. The Admins had basically announced a prize that was too good to turn down for anyone. It would be the talk of the Interverse forever. Unless they totally botch the tournament or the prize ends up being lame. But until then it was going to be in everyone's mind.

It was certainly in mine. A bug sized nugget had burrowed into my brain and was coursing through my whole body. I realized it was more than excitement... it was hope. I thought I had lost that but on literally my worst day I made a friend and was given this wonderful opportunity.

Even without any combat experience I dared to hope. Maybe things would end up being hopeLESS, but until then I was allowed to dream again.

I smiled bigger than I had before my mom died, feeling like a kid on Christmas Eve. Eventually my dreams of the future switched to the sleeping kind of dreams as I fought for that bracelet all throughout the night.

#

Unfortunately, the next day, I saw that nothing about Interverse combat was as easy as it had been in my dreams. Just the process of getting started was overwhelming. Stephen joined me in my apartment in the afternoon and told me to pick a combat skill to start with.

I scrolled through the never ending list of near worthless plus ones.

"So, let me explain something before you get too overwhelmed," Stephen said, far too late to avoid that. "There are Combat Style which are kind of the grouping of different Stats that all relate to the same type of combat. So, for example, Hand to Hand, that's a Combat Style. And you see that everything underneath it are Stats that use that Style. Leveling the individual ones also level up your overall Combat Style Rank."

I nodded, continuing to scroll. "That makes sense. But... where the hell do we start? Why do I have to decide?"

He shrugged. "I'm indecisive."

"Well, I'm overwhelmed. So you're up." I exited out of the menu and crossed my legs, awaiting what happened next.

He scratched the back of his head. "Okay... I guess let's start with Gunplay. That's all I've dabbled in, besides some like strength training. That... sound good?"

"I guess, man, I don't know what else to do. If you're showing me the ropes it makes sense to start somewhere that you actually have a rope."

He laughed. "Yeah, that makes sense. And luckily for us, it's not long enough to hang ourselves on."

"But probably not long enough to save us from a fall. Look at us, swapping metaphors." I grinned at him.

"You're better at it than some of my writing friends. You sure you don't just want to forget all this and pick up a pen?"

I considered for a moment.

"No. That's plan B."

He laughed. "Okay then, let's get plan A started."

A Party invite popped up my screen, from Stephen obviously. I accepted it.

"So, we don't have to rush straight into combat, luckily. We can head to a training range first. I'll make a private room and we can just try out a bunch of weapons and see what you gravitate toward. Sound good?"

"Let's do it." I gulped back my anxiety and prepared for the teleportation.

It took Stephen less than ten seconds to set it up and I stood up, starting in my living room, and ending up in, exactly as he said, a training range. It was literally just a boxy room with wall-to-wall guns of every type imaginable.

"It’s uh, kind of cramped in here."

Stephen laughed. "This isn’t the range, just the weapon room. It'll open up once we make our selections."

"What should I...?" Stephen immediately bailed to go look at weapons on another wall. "Right. Indecisive."

I was on my own. To choose a weapon out of this vast armory of HP depleting weaponry.

"Oh, by the way," Stephen said. "You should pick a main weapon and a smaller, sub weapon. Like, a pistol."

Okay, correction: I got to choose TWO weapons out of the mass shooter’s wet dream. That did not make things any easier for me. Not knowing where to start, I just walked forward, closed my eyes, and grabbed one at random.

I looked in my hand and it was a really tiny pistol. But not, like, a normal earth gun. I could tell it was more like an energy blaster. The gun’s info popped into my vision:

[ Tiny Tim: Unlimited ammo with a charge time (and a kick!)

Charge Shot +5 at full charge. ]

That sounded… promising? I didn't mind a bit of a wait. Unlimited ammo would be nice, too. For a sub weapon I think it hit all the right boxes for me. But it looked so boring, just a tiny little metallic gray blaster.

Almost as if summoned by my thoughts, Stephen appeared by my side. "Ah, Tiny Tim, that's a good one. It has a lot of cool uses. But, just so you know, you can change the color of any weapon."

My eyes widened. "Really? How?"

"Just focus on the weapon and think about changing it and a menu should pop up."

I did as he said and, sure enough, there it was. I scrolled through all the options, yet another overwhelming list. But there was a catch.

"Wait, you have to pay for the weapon skins?" I groaned.

"Yeahh, it sucks. But there are some basic colors. Some cheaper, slightly cooler ones. Or you could always go with the noob default but I dunno if you want to—"

Just as he said that I found the option, [ Newbie Color ] I clicked it, extremely curious. At once the gun transformed, into a bright ass almost neon pink.

"Wow, that is kind of hard to look at."

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"It's meant to be both terrible so you spend money fast to change it and also making you super easy to see to your opponents. With the full noob gear, you're basically a walking target."

"Ugh, that sounds really shitty. Not inviting to new players at all." I said.

"Unfortunately a lot of the combat related stuff still has a very male-focused and gate-keeping attitude. But there are circles where it isn't as bad. We'll just have to find our people. But, we are far off from having to worry about that. Pick your main weapon and let's get to training."

I sighed. Right. One more decision to make. I walked off to another rack at random. This one was full of sniper rifles. I considered one but quickly dropped that idea. How the hell was clumsy old me supposed to use a weapon that needed 100% accuracy? I would never get a hit.

So then I thought maybe I should focus on close range. Which meant a shotgun. But the thought of being up close and personal with someone made me anxious. I would rather be at least a little bit away. So, mid-range was probably what I wanted. Which meant...

"I think I want, like, a mid-range rifle? That's a thing, right?" I asked, hating how dumb I probably sounded.

"Oh yeah, for sure." Stephen came to stand beside me, scratching his chin. "Bullets or energy?"

I brandished my pistol. "This is already energy so I guess let's go with something with bullets."

He nodded and stared intently at the weapons. What mental thought process he was going through I couldn't be sure, but it was nice to be able to just let him do the thinking for me for a little bit.

"How about this," He handed me a rifle, that was really long and heavy. I about dropped it just taking it from him. He laughed and took it back. "Okay, definitely not that one..."

I thought of something. "I know I want one with a scope. In the old FPS games I've played I almost always played looking through one of those."

Stephen grinned, "That helps a lot actually, how about this guy?"

He handed me a plain-looking rifle, maybe even a little stubby. But it did indeed have a scope, but nothing really stood out to me about it.

He saw me looking it over. "Put your eye to the scope."

I looked through it and I saw what he meant immediately. The scope provided all kinds of crazy info, when I looked all around the gun room it focused in on every weapon and seemed to be categorizing the priority I should take them out in by the threat they possessed. Or, that's what it would be doing, as once it scanned them it automatically knew they were empty and labeled them as non-threats.

I laughed and took my eye out. "This thing is so cool!"

"Don't think it's too much information? Some people don't like to be told all that stuff. You can mess with the settings and limit them but, no matter what you do, the thing is a bit... wordy. Hence the name."

I examined the gun and got its full info:

[ Wordy The Knowledge Stick: Provides way too much info. On everything. Seriously, look at stuff! (when it's unloaded!)

Insight +10 ]

"Yeah, this guy is coming with me." I looked at the gun again and brought up the customization menu and switched it to the blinding noob pink.

"Quite an interesting combo, for sure," Stephen said. "But good picks. Alright, you ready to get some training in?"

"Hell yes, I am so ready to let out years of frustration on any unsuspecting targets or dummy robots."

"You're in luck, we've got both!" Stephen made some selections on his menu and the walls sunk into the floor, revealing that the training course had been behind them the entire time.

I saw a section that was filled with targets, some that were standing still and others that were flying all around in set patterns. Another section had robot dummies plotting courses in predictable patterns. And...

"Dude, those two things are literally all there is!" I couldn't hide the disappointment in my voice.

"I may have oversold it, yeah. But, come on, this is all we need." He gestured for me to follow.

He led us to the target section.

"Which one do you want to try first?"

I held up Tiny Tim.

"Alright, for that one you're gonna want to aim, and then hold the trigger until you see it flash. That's when the charge is at its max. You can fire before then but it isn't as powerful or fast and it doesn't fly as far. Try it out."

I stepped up to the plate, to use an outdated sports reference that was completely out of character for me but it was the first thing that came to my mind as I readied Tim. I pressed the trigger and it shook like mad in my hand, I had to grip it tighter to stop it from flying out of my palm completely. I waited until I saw the flash and then released it.

The shot was huge and a wave of heat blasted me off my feet quite a ways. The charged shot flew forward and sliced off a corner of the target.

"Whoa!" Stephen clapped. "That was pretty good for your first shot. My first attempt didn't even hit the target."

"Just that pesky little +1 working overtime."

"Ohhh. I forgot about that. Wow, so that's all it did for you, huh? Let you graze the target with your very first shot."

"Yep. I graze everything I try." For some reason, tears threatened to spill out but I fought them down. I was not going to cry over my Skill in front of Stephen, damn it.

But even so, Stephen could tell something was off. "Not this time. You're gonna be an expert marksman in no time."

I smiled. "And we are going to win the tournament and get that bracelet and change our lives forever?"

"I'm not willing to go that far yet. Let's start with the marksman thing."

"A realist, I like it."

Stephen flashed a thumbs up. "You want to try a non-charged shot, to see what it's like?"

I nodded and did just that. The blast flew out much slower and didn't even make it halfway to the target. Before it vanished completely it did a little swoop and then was gone in a poof.

"That was kind of cute. But not so great for killing people, huh?" I put Tiny Tim back in my inventory.

"Cute?" Stephen laughed. "Never heard someone describe it like that."

"How else would you refer to it? That little swoop at the end? So cute."

"Most people would say it fucking sucks."

I waved my hand and shook my head. "No, no, that's far too mean. it's cute."

Stephen grinned. "Whatever you say. Ready to try the next one? Remember, there's going to be a lot of info. If you keep it trained on the target it should be minimal word vomit."

I put my eye up to the scope and the words rushed to greet me. There were calculations for the distance between me and the target. It showed aim lines for where to get the best hits on it. And for some reason, it started to tell me what the target was made out of (iron alloy, apparently, with coats of white and blue paints [which were made from...]).

I giggled. "This thing really is wordy."

"Surely it isn't cute, too?"

"If I said it was, I guess that would make you cute, too, writer boy. Whoa, the scope is telling me you're blushing!"

"It is not! You're not looking at me! And, I'm not..." He said, totally one hundred percent blushing.

I was tempted to aim my gun at him, I had no doubt the scope would be able to tell me he was blushing but I didn't want to aim a loaded weapon at him. So, instead, I dropped the teasing and focused in. On hitting the target.

I lined up with one of the sight lines that gave me a 50% chance of hitting the bullseye. I pulled the trigger and three rapid-fire bullets raced out of the barrel. Two of them landed on either side of the middle but one, the very last bullet, went straight through the center of it.

"Way to go!" Stephen clapped me on the back. "That was a great shot."

"Kind of feels like cheating, the scope told me what to do." I brought my eye back out of it and turned to Stephen. His cheeks were normal now but that didn't rule out that blushing hadn't happened at all.

"Hey, whatever will get us to our goal, right?"

"Yeah, totally, what was I saying? I'll outright cheat if it means we could win."

Stephen didn't respond right away, he had a far-off look in his eye and I didn't think he was just looking at a menu.

"What is it?" I asked.

"What if... what if the tournament turns off Respawns?"

Shit. I hadn't even stopped to consider that.

"They wouldn't do that," I said. "The entire Interverse wants to enter this, it's supposed to be a big thing to bring us together. They wouldn't make it a life or death thing, that would be insane."

"I guess... but you never know. What if they have it be normal Interverse rules at first but for the final rounds they turn it off?"

Now that, unfortunately, could very well happen. Damn.

"What I'm asking basically is, are you willing to die for this chance?"

I reeled a little and my mind went wild. Was I willing to die for it? My whole life I had been wanting a redo, some way to get my life back on track. The prize would definitely do that... but if I failed it would be all over. But is my current life really that great? Wouldn't it be best to at least go out trying to change things for the better? I wouldn't disgrace my mom's legacy if I went out like that.

But I wasn't really willing to share that with Stephen. It would just worry him, it kind of worried me. So I went with an easier response.

"I don't know, really. But, I mean, we are so far off from having to worry about that. Let's actually make it there and if they do take off Respawning, then we will deal with it when we're there."

"Yeah, you're right. I just overthink and worry. We probably won't make it to that point, we're gonna fail in the first round."

I smacked his shoulder. "Hey, no. We are staying positive, remember? We got this. We are going to win the whole thing. Now, let's move on to the moving robot dummies."

Stephen's spirits were raised but I couldn't help but doubt what I'd said. It seemed to me that it would take someone who was already a powerhouse to get that prize. We wanted it because we sucked, what hope did two Statistic Anomalies possibly have?

I guess we were going to find out.